Governor Cowardly Waste of Oxygen Does Something Right

Well, shit. For the next two years I have to temper every condemnation of Steve Beshear with the caveat: except for the time he made KSP stop discriminating against immigrants.

Gov. Steve Beshear today ordered the Kentucky State Police to reverse a decision to end the longstanding policy of offering the written driver’s license test in multiple languages.

The decision to change the policy had been made largely for budgetary concerns. However, Gov. Beshear said the "decision was wrong – plain and simple."

Kentucky already requires that an operator’s license shall not be granted to any person who is unable to understand highway warnings or directional signs in the English language.

"It did not reflect the values of this administration or the values that I think most Kentuckians share – as a state welcoming people to do business here."

Gov. Beshear cited the fact that Kentucky is an increasingly diverse state, with a growing population of people in the Commonwealth from other countries here as business executives, students and legal workers in industry and other places.

While the Governor acknowledged the significant budgetary challenges confronting all of state government, including the criminal justice system, he said there must be a balance between cutting costs and providing services.

"The job of governing will get even tougher as resources grow tighter," Gov. Beshear said. "The question, then, isn’t whether we will make mistakes. We will. The question is how we respond when we do."

To that end, Gov. Beshear said no one has a tougher job than state troopers and no one does their jobs better than police officers and workers in the criminal justice system. Its leadership team, he said, "has my full confidence. That has not changed.

But when we make a mistake, we must stand up, admit it, correct it and move on."

Of the first 100 elected officials in Kentucky I would have guessed might be courageous enough to stand up against the forces of anti-government, xenophobic bigotry, Steve Beshear would not even make the list.

I mean, it's great and all, but your very first act of political courage had to wait 18 months from Inauguration? You couldn't muster a little testosterone on behalf of a once-in-a-century Democratic presidential candidate? Or a state economy suffering a slow death from coal-industry strangulation, wingnut freakazoid backwardness and a regressive, ridiculous tax system only a robber baron could love?

And now that you have begun to grow a spine, may I ask that you use it to tell senate president David Williams that all the tax and spending cuts in the world won't cover the $1 billion deficit Kentucky is facing next year?

Cross-posted at They Gave Us A Republic ....